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Hunter earned $14 an hour cleaning oil drums before the Great Recession seized the economy and
his job was axed. At 53, Hunter now works three days a week for $9.25 an hour, mopping floors and
fixing fryers at two McDonald’s restaurants in Chicago.

“If the economy is getting better, I’m not sure for whom,” he said. “It certainly hasn’t
trickled down to me.”

The Gallup Organization has found that consumers’ view of the economy is the glummest it’s been
in seven months.

As the economic recovery enters its sixth year, a number of factors help explain why many
Americans don’t feel better off: Income hasn’t rebounded. Millions are working part time even
though they want full-time jobs. It’s taking longer to find work. Many still struggle with mortgage
debt. And most don’t feel free to spend as much as they used to.

Lagging income

Most people are still earning less, adjusted for inflation, than before the recession struck at
the end of 2007. Even many who kept their jobs through the recession — or easily found work after
being let go — are no better off. The typical family income is an inflation-adjusted $52,959,
according to Sentier Research. That’s $3,303 less than before the recession — a nearly 6 percent
drop.

A review by Wells Fargo found that after-tax income fell for the bottom 20 percent of earners
and barely rose for the next-highest 20 percent during the recovery.

“Wages are just not keeping up,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the National
Employment Law Project. “We don’t have an economy that is as robust as we need it to be.”

Fewer full-time jobs

Finding steady full-time work has become harder. There are 27.4 million part-time jobs,
representing 18.8 percent of jobs in the U.S., according to the Labor Department. Before the
recession, 16.5 percent of jobs were part time.

Some of this increase is because of the still-sluggish recovery: Employers want to cut costs and
payrolls by limiting their workers to fewer than 35 hours a week. But the trend might also reflect
a lasting shift among restaurants and coffee shops, said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells
Fargo.

“A lot of companies have figured out that they didn’t need employees to sell coffee between 2
and 4 p.m. that nobody is buying,” Silvia said.

Employers slow to hire

The “Help Wanted” signs are out: There were 4.6 million available jobs in May, according to
government data, the most in seven years and 20 percent more than a year ago. Yet not enough of
those jobs are being filled.

University of Chicago economists calculated that it took an average of more than 25 days for
employers to fill a vacant job in May. That was up from an average of 22.5 days last year and is
the longest such figure in the 13 years that the data have been tracked.